By Dr Vinod Kumar Bhatt
The Himalayan Agroecology Initiative is a strategic endeavour that works closely with governments and with the support of a broad group of stakeholders to support the emergence of multi-stakeholder processes that develop, build capacities and facilitate the implementation of agroecological food systems roadmaps. Its main aim is to improve livelihoods and sustainability in India, Nepal and Bhutan, and to empower farmers, farmer producer organisations and other key stakeholders so they better benefit from public policies, including those that support organic and natural agriculture, food processing and consumption.
Together with the World Future Council and IFOAM – Organics International, renowned organisations are paving the way for this ambitious undertaking at the national level, including the Alliance of Bioversity International-CIAT and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in India, Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD) in Nepal and the Tarayana Foundation in Bhutan. A high-level conference launching the roadmaps and with envisaged participation of ministers, policy makers, researchers, extension services, civil society and private players from the three countries is envisioned to be held in early 2025 in New Delhi, India. This timely effort is contributing to the German-Indian Lighthouse Initiative for Agroecology and Sustainable Resource Management and is funded by the Special Initiative Transformation of Agricultural and Food Systems of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), of which both are core partners.
Vast areas of the Himalayan Region remain predominantly untouched by the disruptive effects of the Green Revolution and traditional agriculture still represents the main occupation. Agriculture in the region is largely rainfed, making it prone to the vagaries of the weather and highly vulnerable to climate variability and climate change, even more so as the region is a climate hotspot. These have an escalating adverse impact on farming-based livelihoods, with declining agricultural yields, income, and employment opportunities as well as increasing risks of food and nutrition insecurity. Despite these conditions and challenges, rainfed area farmers contribute nearly 40 percent of the total food production in the case of India and support two-thirds of livestock population. Nevertheless, food and nutrition insecurity are widespread in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. Currently, around 50% of the region’s population faces some form of malnutrition, with women and children suffering the most. The lack of financial resources is often making an adequate diet unaffordable. However, the causes of food and nutrition insecurity in the region are multifaceted and complex, and influenced by a range of factors, including besides high poverty, also natural resource degradation, climate change, low level of market development, uncertain food support, and inadequate policy and institutional support. A likewise systemic and holistic approach is therefore needed to address these issues. Conscious of this fact, policymakers have increasingly recognised the need to strengthen food and nutrition security, climate resilience and rural job creation while preserving the region’s diverse ecosystems and its natural resources. Even more governmental schemes on national and state levels have been directed towards addressing these issues in their complexities, including investing in extension services for organic and natural farming, developing participatory guarantee systems, fostering market access for small-scale producers, increasing sustainable consumption behaviours and more, approaches which are increasingly summed up under the term ‘agroecology’.
Agroecology is an internationally recognised transition pathway towards sustainable food systems, as evidenced by the Agroecology Coalition founded in 2021, which now comprises around 50 countries. The growing momentum and urgency for the redesign of our food systems were also emphasised by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) as well as the UN Food Systems Summit in 2021. Since then, numerous countries developed national food system pathways and were recently encouraged to develop actionable implementation strategies until the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit +4 in 2025. The Himalayan Agroecology Initiative is part of this increasing consciousness that the transition to agroecological food systems will generate wide multiplier effects and act as major catalyst for broader transformation across multiple systems and SDGs. By tackling poverty and food insecurity, enhancing livelihoods and long-term economic sustainability of small-scale producers and their families, strengthening local economies, regenerating critical environmental resources such as soil, water and biodiversity, and building resilience towards future shocks, the agroecology path addresses multiple, highly intertwined challenges at the same time, in a holistic manner. Rapid climate change, the drastic loss of biodiversity, water and soil, socioeconomic developments but also geopolitical tensions, demand urgent action. Towards Agroecological Food Systems Roadmaps Building on the ongoing governmental efforts and international commitments, the Agroecology Himalaya Task Force has been established in early 2023 with experts from Bhutan, India and Nepal, with the vision to make the Himalayan region a global pioneer with systemic strategies for agroecological food systems and with the commitment to advance the development of such comprehensive roadmaps. In May 2023, funds from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have been secured by the World Future Council and IFOAM – Organics International for a 4-year period (until April 2027) to advise governments in the region and to facilitate, in cooperation with renowned implementing entities, multistakeholder processes that develop, build capacities and start the implementation of the roadmap in the three focus countries.
To bring the views of the different stakeholders including policymakers, NGO representatives, entrepreneurs and farmers will get together at the state level consultation workshops in 4 states of India as well as Nepal and Bhutan. In India, state level consultation in Meghalaya was organised on 17 September, and Nagaland on 19 September, whereas it is planned in Himachal Pradesh on 24 September and in Uttarakhand on 26 of September.
The Agroecology Himalayas Task Force has sought support from all stakeholders, particularly policymakers at various levels, to join in this endeavour with a view to finalising the roadmaps for the three countries and to launch them at a high-level conference in early 2025 in Delhi, India.
(Dr Vinod Kumar Bhatt is State consultant for the initiative and convener for the state consultation)
